Re: Thomas Jefferson, Democrat.

The set up of the game is a two-party structure. For candidates that predate the modern political system, this leads to situations like Jefferson being a "Democrat" and Washington being a "Republican."

Although I agree that Jefferson and Washington's views aren't accurately reflected in modern political parties, they still have to be assigned A party. And putting one founding father in the Republicans and another in the Democrats is good game balance.

TPM is not a simulation, its a GAME.

and re: Lord Kona? I haven't tried him yet, but I think he's funny. I want to try and win with him!

Maxpower, I love you can go on wikipedia and say that. The problem is wikipedia is edited by a bunch of monkeys who don't know anything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_%28United_States%29

Look at ideology, CLASSICAL LIBERALISM.

The Federalists wished for a stronger federal government, giving power to the big populated cities with greater power in the election process. This overwhelmingly favored wealthy bankers and such that lived in the Northern states. The Republicans wished for a small government, so that government could not be used to exert the majority opinions of northern politicians on the minority farmer citizens through federal law.

Now, Republicans want a smaller government to leave people alone and let people with money keep it. Democrats, meanwhile, like a huge government to deploy a safety net for those that are less fortunate in our society and to bring "equality" to everyone. This is why the small govt Republican Thomas Jefferson is a large govt Democrat in this game. The theory adapts, but the sentiment remains.

While its true that Jefferson publically supported a smaller government, much of what we call big government came from the Jefferson amdministration. Jefferson comes from the Democrat-Republican party which is the forerunner of the Jacksonian Democratic party that continues today. The parties change along with the political climates. The party of Lincoln was founded from the ashes of the Whig party which is sort of descended from the Federalist party. The Republican party was founded on its opposition to slavery. This continued on until the unholy pact which placed Rutherford Hayes in the White House and ended any reform in the south. While the Republicans continued to officially oppose the abuses against blacks in the south, they really only paid lip service to the issue. Republicans returned to their backing of corporate America with The issue of civil rights really didn't have a place in national politics until the time of Truman and was a major reason for his unpopularity. So by the time of Nixon many of those against civil rights had switched over to the Republican party as part of his Southern strategy.